Sedona Film Festival presents ‘Dolphin Man’ premiere July 31

The Sedona International Film Festival is hosting a one-night-only special premiere of the award-winning new documentary “Dolphin Man” on Tuesday, July 31 at 4 and 7 p.m. at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre.

“Dolphin Man” tells the life story of Jacques Mayol, the greatest free-diver in recorded history, whose life became the inspiration for Luc Besson’s cult-movie “The Big Blue”. It draws us into Mayol’s world, capturing his compelling journey from Japan to Europe, North America and India, while immersing viewers into the sensory and transformative experience of free-diving.

Mayol was the first diver to reach 100 metres below the sea and revolutionized free-diving by introducing yoga and Zen techniques.

From the Mediterranean to Japan and from India to the Bahamas, we meet Mayol’s closest friends and family, including his children Dottie and Jean-Jacques, and world free-diving champions William Trubridge, Mehgan Heaney-Grier and Umberto Pelizzari, to reveal the portrait of a man who reached the limits of the human body and mind, not just to break records but hoping to discover the deeper affinity between human beings and the sea.

Born in Shanghai in 1927, Mayol was taught to dive by Japanese fishermen during family holidays on the island of Karatsu. With the outbreak of WWII, the freedom he had experienced as a child in the East was lost, when his family returned to France.

After the war, he found freedom working with dolphins at the Miami Seaquarium, and gradually became interested in diving deeper and longer underwater. He became the first man to reach 100 meters below the sea on a single breath in 1976.

“Dolphin Man” will show at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Tuesday, July 31 at 4 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $12, or $9 for Film Festival members. For tickets and more information, please call 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona. For more information, visit: www.SedonaFilmFestival.org